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miafeystits · 2 years

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not to keep rambling about the mechanics of disco elysium’s thought cabinet, but i was thinking today about how this post came about via me trying to figure out why it seemed i was gaining xp at a much slower rate in my current run of the game (as a moralist) vs earlier runs (both times as a communist), and i had a bit of a realization

while i think having internalized kingdom of conscience instead of mazovian socio-economics (and thus not gaining that sweet sweet communist xp) is at least part of the equation, i’d forgotten about a key difference between my earlier runs and my current one-- i’d always played as an art cop before, the second time around with conceptualization as my highest or second-highest stat (i can’t remember exactly) which, after internalizing actual art degree, translates into a not-insignificant amount of bonus xp:

which leads me to an interesting fact that i hadn’t really noticed before: while most thoughts do have some mechanical effect on harry, thoughts that grant extra xp to the player are pretty rare. in fact, there’s only four of them: jamais vu (derealization), mazovian socio-economics, actual art degree, and wompty-dompty dom centre

which. okay. i’ve already talked about mazovian socio-economics in a different essay, i won’t get into that again here. jamais vu? the extra xp makes sense-- if we’re reading the acquisition of xp as a way of illustrating harry’s character growth through game mechanics, it tracks for jamais vu, a thought about harry trying to better understand the world around him and his relationship to it, to give a small amount of xp for making an effort to explore your surroundings (and also mechanically give you the opportunity to learn more information!)

but like. actual art cop and wompty-dompty dom centre? why? why those in particular?

well, imo, the reason that both of these thoughts are able to offer so much xp is the same thing that ties them to each other thematically: they’re thoughts about art.

and even though both of the thoughts are textually quite critical of the art world and the culture surrounding it (the wompty-dompty dom centre describes the art crowd as the “unholy symbiosis of esthetics and tax optimization,” and the solution to actual art degree is literally just a bunch of ways to call something mediocre lmao) the mechanical benefits to both of these thoughts indicate another underlying argument: that not only is it still worth it to engage with art, but that engaging with art and trying to (as the description for conceptualization puts it) “see Art in the world” gives harry more tools and opportunities to improve as a person

because that’s what a skill point fundamentally is, right? it’s a new opportunity for harry to grow, either by leveling up a skill or by learning something new about the world or himself (via unlocking more space in the thought cabinet). internalizing these thoughts does what good art can do-- they make the world a little bigger, and make that world a little easier to survive

#disco elysium #meta #the amount of times i typed out the phrase 'wompty dompty dom centre' in this fucking post. christ.#anyway now that i got that out i can finally go back to my actual schoolwork lmao #this did come slithering out of my brain at 10pm tho so if it sucks: sorry

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theeangeltimes · 6 months

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Vampire Academy Books 1-3 Re-read Thought Dump

For the past several months, I’ve been working my way through a re-read of one of my favorite book series, Vampire Academy.

I first read it four years ago when I was 14/15, so it’s been a loooong time and I’ve forgotten quite a bit of it. Plus, now that I’m older and more intelligent/perceptive/critical, my opinions have changed quite a bit and I’ve picked up on more subtle things in the story this time around. In this blog (for my own sake, lol), I’ll be sharing some of the new stances I’ve developed on aspects/characters in the first three books of the series, Vampire Academy, Frost Bite, and Shadow Kiss (as those are the only ones I’ve re-read thus far). AND THERE WILL BE SPOILERS, so beware!

── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──

• Lissa + roselissa’s friendship kinda fvcking suck.

I’ve never been the biggest fan of lissa and she honestly kind of always rubbed me the wrong way, but during my first read I never really thought too much about it and could never put my finger on what exactly it was that bothered me about her. But now I know!

Their friendship just feels so disproportionate in the sense that it feels like Rose would and has done literally EVERYTHING for Lissa, but Lissa wouldn’t do the same. Like Rose is literally training to spend her future dedicated to Lissa and risking her life to protect her. She also took Lissa away from the academy, putting her herself in jeopardy to keep Lissa safe AND even let Lissa feed off of her while they were out in the human world by themselves despite that being seen as utterly degrading by their society. And let’s not forget how she knew that Lissa’s use of spirit was wreaking havoc on her mental well-being and would probably drive her to insanity or even suicide, yet she let Lissa keep on using it just because it made her happy…

But when Dimitri was left behind in the cave after the mission in Shadow Kiss, Lissa wouldn’t even tell Rose that she would at least ATTEMPT to heal Dimitri or bring him back to life even though Rose was distraught and begging. And then she had the nerve to get mad at Rose when she found out that she and Dimitri had a relationship and Rose didn’t tell her about it. Like, what???

And there’s other ways she’s rubbed me the wrong way but I won’t mention them because I feel like I don’t have enough proof to truly support my argument, but I’m still right! ☝️

Lissa is also just sort of a bland character. And I normally like quiet kind smart girls, but there’s just something that falls flat about her for me.

And speaking of the bond…

• The use of the bond was a very clever storytelling device. So while I do find it mostly annoying, I also appreciate it.

• Adrian is a fvcking CREEP!!!

I truly, TRULY, do not understand how I liked or even felt bad for Adrian at all when I first read this series. He’s a creep, and the way that Lissa (see? another reason why Lissa sucks) and Richelle Mead try to gaslight both us the reader and Rose into thinking that deep down he’s some great guy pissed me off so much. And it makes me feel insane when I look at how the fandom as a whole tends to love him and defend him and act like Rose is this major evil bitch, because HOWWWWWW???

It’s bad enough that he is constantly flirting with Rose since she’s underage, but even if she was a grown ass woman, it would still be gross; Rose tells him over and over again to leave her alone and stop flirting with her, and yet he persists. And also makes sexual comments to/about her. And always tries to ~playfully~ coerce her into giving him physical contact like hugs. And also bugs her in her dreams even though, once again, she tell him not to. Like there’s no way she can escape his creepy ass and nobody steps in for her to tell him to fuck off and leave her alone. It’s blood-boiling to me.

And, spolier: from what I can recall, more layers of shittiness are added to his character as the series progresses and even more are added in Bloodlines (unpopular opinion, but oh well). The only good thing that mf has done is fund rose’s trip to kill strigoi Dimitri.

And speaking of her getting money from Adrian…

• I genuinely do not feel bad for Rose asking Adrian for money.

Like why in the world would I care that a woman does something kind of bad to her harasser? Especially when she’s a teenager who’s in a terrible space mentally?

The whole exchange reinforces how Adrian is a total creep. As I previously mentioned, Rose was not only in mental/emotional turmoil due to Lissa’s use of spirit, but she was also reeling from Mason’s passing, the strigoi attacks and their casualties, and Dimitri turning strigoi. And yet he was still bugging her about dating him.

• The dhampirs (especially the women and girls) are greatly oppressed and thus far no one has even really acknowledged that except Ambrose, and he doesn’t even truly relay just how bad their oppression is.

The Moroi (as a class) exploit the physical abilities of dhampirs and more importantly the fact that the dhampir race cannot go on without Moroi and coerce them into dedicating their entire lives to being their guard dogs. The only other choices that dhampirs really have when they’re adults other than becoming guardians is to become “blood whores,” single mothers who live on communes (which is pretty much always conflated with being a blood whore by most people in their society), or being alone and vulnerable in the human world.

And it’s completely normalized (the primary way that dhampir a are reproduced, in fact) in their society for Moroi men to have casual relationships with dhampir women, impregnate them, and then leave them to raise their children on their own while they go and settle down with a Moroi woman instead. PLUS, guardians having serious romantic relationships is looked down upon, so those are pretty much out of the question.

And what makes it worse is that they can’t even liberate themselves from Moroi completely unless they’re willing to have the dhampir race die out completely since interaction with humans is not a real option.

To make matters even worse, Moroi could have been fighting alongside dhampirs to protect themselves from strigoi, and the fire users can very easily kill strigoi without even coming into physical contact with them, but no. The moroi were too damn lazy and thought of themselves too highly to do so. Which is why I’m glad that Moroi have started advocating for Moroi to begin fighting as well and that becomes a big theme throughout the novels.

• Moroi (as a class) are evil oppressors, continued

The whole feeder system is very flawed and exploitative, in my opinion. The fact that we briefly see in the books a few times that the feedings cause a mental deterioration for the feeders after a while is the main reason why. In Shadow Kiss, the way that rose and Christian were sitting there calling Alice (the elderly feeder who seemed to be experiencing some sort of psychosis) ~craaaazzzyyyyyy~ yet Christian still proceeded to feed on her definitely made me side eye him.

Surely there could be a more humane system put into place, like age/service limits for feeders or something.

*side note: I don’t think we ever figure out how Alice knew about how the strigoi were coming? I could very well be wrong though, I’ll have to see if Richelle provides answers in the following books.*

• Despite how outspoken and confident and strong and brave Rose may be, she has ZERO self-preservation or self-worth when it comes to herself and the dhampir race as a whole.

To see her repeatedly talk about how it was both her and every other dhampir’s duty to protect and prioritize Moroi and become guardians and repeat that stupid “they come first” mantra and dedicate her entire life to training just to protect her friend has honestly been painful. Like, girl, STAND UP!!! None of you were put on this planet just to give up your life and be 24/7 bodyguards to some people that likely see you as inferior to them!

However, I do think this aspect of her makes her character more real and complex. Rose may seem like a rebel to the people around her because she often gets into trouble and is sassy and ran away, but in reality, she isn’t one at all. Her worldview is actually quite traditional. She has internalized all the norms in her society without a second thought and doesn’t begin to see things differently until she starts interacting more with the world outside of St. Vladimir’s and is upon the brink of adulthood. She even says herself “Why was everyone suddenly challenging something that I’d held as absolute truth my entire life?” in Shadow Kiss.

I’m very excited to see how both Rose and her world continue to evolve and grow with the next three books. I don’t remember the society and characterization of these books being so rich and complex, Richelle Mead did an amazing job creating a compelling and thought-provoking world. So while I may not think that these books are literary masterpieces like I once did, I appreciate them in a new, deeper way.

#vampire academy #vampire academy books #ya books #rose hathaway #adrian ivashkov #lissa dragomir #anti adrian ivashkov

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pomrania · 1 year

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A few days ago I was thinking about games and accidentally came up with a system, and I’ve decided to make that everyone else’s problem, because I feel like rambling about it.

It requires a number of tokens, divided into two types, for “yes” and “no”. This could be playing cards (red vs black), dice of different shapes, if you want to get REALLY traditional (as in, ancient Greece/Rome [I can’t remember which]) then it could be white or black beans, etc. There has to be an equal number of “yes” and “no” tokens available.

Everyone gets the same amount of tokens. However, these are distributed randomly; nobody except the person themself knows who has how many ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

The role of “person who asks the question” is rotated. The question has to be one that can be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’, and it shouldn’t have too many clauses in it, because that’s basically lumping two (or three, or four, etc) questions together, and that’s not fair.

Once the question has been asked, a vessel gets passed around. A bag of some sort would work well; it needs to a) hold the tokens, and b) not allow people to see what kind of tokens have already been put in there. Everyone has the option to either put in one of their tokens, or to abstain; like, if they really want ‘yes’ to happen, but they only have ‘no’ tokens left. There has to be a certain amount of votes for the thing to actually go through, and the ‘person who asked the question’ also has a vote.

Once everyone’s either voted or abstained, the tokens get tallied up, to see if the final answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no’. If it’s a tie, then a token gets randomly drawn from... I was going to say “the stash whence the tokens were distributed in the first place”, but “stash of discarded tokens” is another option. Or I just realized, discarded tokens (ones that were used for previous votes) could be added back to the original stash, which I suppose is a better option, since it means there’s fewer bags you have to keep track of, and I think it’ll also mean stuff has a greater tendency to be more random.

So that’s the actual technical mechanics of the thing, unless I’ve forgotten to say something because I know what I mean thus in my head I don’t notice any absences of what I expressed (distressingly plausible), but that doesn’t say what the gameplay loop would be.

There’s prolly a number of options here; I know the one I ended up “designing” this for (I had an idle thought, and then what-if’d my way into coming up with this), but I’m curious if anyone else has something an seemed obvious to them upon reading this. And also I want to get this posted; I’ll add in the rest a bit later, so long as I remember.

#gaming #original content #not a reblog #rambling

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rolotouto · 1 year

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Some sounds and anthology raws

I’m doing my best to try to obtain the CD that was released today... But in the meatime, let me use this blog to share and preserve some hard-to-find, obscure things from the past as well! First of all, as I was looking through old files, I came across a few stories from some comic anthologies I’ve previously talked about, which I had completely forgotten to have already scanned. Have a link to a folder. They are untranslated, but if anyone has any specific request, feel free to ask. And now, here are some short audio files, mostly from references to Rolo by other sources rather than Code Geass itself: ・ From R2′s Room #5 (May 2008) AUDIO FILE Well, we start with one that does belong to official Geass stuff. “R2′s Room” were brief videos where different voice actors talked about an episode of R2 each time (Daichuu shows up in episodes 5 to 8, so you can hear him talk about Turn 5, 6, 7 and 8). The audio clip focuses on the scene where Lelouch “teaches” Rolo how to hold a knife properly during Turn 5:

So... Rolo and... Well, the relationship between Rolo, whom I voice, and Lelouch, has taken... another small step forward, would it be right to call it? Well, Rolo, after all, he still suspects Lelouch a bit, and just when he was thinking “Should I kill him after all...?” and grabbed the knife like this...! “That’s not right, is it, Rolo?”, he[Lelouch] said, and took his hand like... “The way you use a knife is like this”. And when he did that, Rolo was like ”Ah! Yes, I’ll be careful...” immediately... Rolo, you know, became attached to Lelouch so quickly, and in that moment, even though he could have kept quiet about it, he brought up that “My Geass has a weakness”. So yeah, at this point you can see that he’s totally hooked, huh.

As a side note related to this, you might have seen the term はぁん in lots of old Japanese art/blog posts about Rolo (even though it’s no longer as referenced as it used to be). That word - well, “interjection”, originates from a magazine interview, where Daichuu was talking about the same Turn 5 scene and said:

He(Rolo) does think “Maybe I really should kill him.” I’m sure that he’s still uneasy. Wondering if Lelouch’s love is real, and so on. But as soon as he receives some physical contact, he goes “haa~n” and is quickly won over (laughs).

Even though it's only a written interview and no fan was there to hear what exactly that 'haa~n' sounded like (in R2's Room, what Daichuu says is more like 'Aah,' right?), the way it's spelled creates the impression of a cute and also kind of unnecessarily suggestive reaction. Thus はぁん became well known by Rolo enthusiasts on the Japanese side of the fandom. --------- ・From the radio program Sayonara Zetsubou Housou #49 (6th August 2008) AUDIO FILE Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei radio program with A LOT of info on its wiki, due to the radio program itself containing even more pop cult references and inside jokes than the source material. Hiroshi Kamiya announces that it’s time for today’s farewell message, which, as requested by a listener, is...:

Daichuu: "After thoroughly being in despair, I will be thrown away like a ragged cloth!"

If you're familiar with Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, then you'll recognize the main character's catchphrase "I'm in despair!", which here is combined with the borozoukin line. Also, the listener requested a line which is written in the passive voice, since Daichuu/Rolo would be the one to read it (I mean that it’s no longer “I’ll throw you away” but “I’ll be thrown away”), but still included Lelouch’s てやる, so it sounds a little weird. Almost like Rolo is determined to be thrown away, like he’s saying it with an “I’ll show you how I get thrown away!” tone. --------- ・ From the radio program Nagisa to Sanae no Omae ni Rainbow #44 (8th August 2008) AUDIO FILE Also known as “Clannad radio”. This one doesn’t have Daichuu, but you can hear Kikuko Inoue (Cécile Croomy) saying “I’ll throw you away like a ragged cloth,” as requested by a listener. --------- ・ From the radio program Sayonara Zetsubou Housou #50 (13th August 2008) AUDIO FILE Daichuu saying “Za waarudo! Toki yo, tomare!”. Then Ryouko Shintani adds the disclaimer: "This radio program is a work of fiction, and the appearing characters, groups, organization names, and Rolo's Geass are fictitious." --------- ・ From the radio program Seiyuu Do (25th March 2010) AUDIO FILE A radio program where voice actors and actresses are interviewed. At some point, Daichuu introduces the next song that will play: Well, my character’s... It’s based on my character, I mean, it’s a song that played during my character's final moments and is a very moving piece, so please listen to it. By Hitomi: ‘Boku wa Tori ni Naru.’ Man, if only Daichuu would sing his own version of BokuTori in Rolo’s voice... --------- ・ From the radio program Music and Comic Plus (4th February 2010) AUDIO FILE Daichuu saying “Please, treat me like a disposable rag” (and the radio host reacting with “Cuuuuuute!”). Yes, the person who requested this must be pretty mean, but then again the entire program has rather indecent lines... --------- I also newly added the audio clip of Lelouch saying “To prove that the fact Shirley and Rolo lived had a meaning...” to this post, since I’d previously only included the transcription. That’s it for now. If anyone found this sort of post interesting, there’s more audios from old ads and such here!

#rolo lamperouge #daichuu #sayonara zetsubou housou #translation #audio files #I finally talk about haan #はぁん #takahiro mizushima #daichuu mizushima #seiyuu #R2's room

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sunder-the-gold · 1 year

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Hi there! Love your RWBY meta analyses. Very intriguing, especially about the Brothers. Say, @luminigh had theorised that the Brothers are not actually gods, but aliens posing as gods instead, and with the CRWBY announcing that V9 would "change everything we know", I'm starting to think that the CRWBY are going for this angle. How would you feel about thus if it's true, and why? Personally, I think I'd only accept the "it's all aliens!" angle if they made it that the Brothers were ALIEN GODS, like aliens yes, but still godly by nature. What do you propose?

Okay, wow, so do NOT try to shift from Rich Text Editor to HTML mode after writing a long-ass reply to an Ask. Save that thing as a Draft first, because Drafts still handle that transition fine, while the Ask will instead become a blank white screen that effectively deletes everything.

And to get one more unpleasant thing out of the way, Luiminign blocked me at least a year ago. They didn’t say why and I’ve long forgotten what I suspected to to be the trigger. That’s just the normal Tumblr experience, really.

In Short

Luiminign’s prediction is entirely futile at best, and is inescapably self-defeating at worst.

Even if they hadn’t blocked me, I couldn’t put it any more pleasantly than that. It’s inherently doomed for three different reasons.

Distinction Without A Difference

Salem calling the two brothers “aliens” instead of “gods” would not have made them any weaker. Ruby Rose calling them “aliens” wouldn’t make her or the present form of humanity any stronger.

Remnant is a pale shadow of its former self. Salem led three armies of people who, individually, had more magical power than all four Seasonal Maidens combined. As one, they launched all of the magical destruction they could muster at the gods... and just one of the brothers scooped that barrage out of the air like a harmless soap bubble. Just as effortlessly, that one brother then produced a wave of extinction that wiped out every human being on the planet without disturbing a single leaf of plant-life, and he broke the moon by merely brushing it on his way out.

The only thing new on Remnant since then are the Relics, which is as much a creation of the gods as human magic was. If humans couldn’t use magic to harm the gods, there’s no way they could meaningfully turn the Relics against the gods either.

Luiminign cannot even claim that the gods have become weaker because of some notion that they depended on the faith of humanity to make them so strong. If humanity was so beneficial to the gods, why would the older brother need to deck the younger one to the floor before convincing him to make humanity together with him? And why would the younger one then so readily wipe out all of humanity instead of just a few to make an example of them?

Just Making The Problem Bigger

The only meaningful distinction between “gods” and “aliens” would be the possibility that the Two Brothers aren’t the only two of their kind in the universe, but rather just two members of an entire species.

But if someone hates how easily the Two Brothers alone can abuse humanity, why would that person want to make the problem worse by introducing even more gods of the same kind?

At least with just the present two gods, Ruby Rose has a chance to win peaceful coexistence by meeting the criteria of their deal with Ozma. But a third god, or an entire multitude of other gods, agreed to no such deal and can just wander in and fuck things up as they please.

Remnant doesn’t have the ability to defeat even one god, let alone survive the collateral damage of another divine war.

Not That Kind Of Story

Of course, CRWBY’s writers could change their minds and give Luiminigh the kind of ending where Team RWBY declares “There is no god!” and kicks alien ass because “Humanity, Fuck Yeah!”...

But doing so would totally contradict the established facts of the setting and compromise the themes of the work.

So it seems to me that Luiminign favors their imagination more than their sense of reason. If they refuse to accept what logic and facts tell them, then they have no choice but to retreat behind imagination and fiction. Which includes believing that Remnant's humans can likewise reject the Two Brothers' reality and substitute their own.

But reality is not democratic.

Many fans want to ignore it, but we were warned from the beginning: “There will be no victory in strength.”

=================================

back to my sub-index for the Two Brother Gods

back to my RWBY Meta index

#rwby #two brothers #brother gods #rwby meta #rwby predictions #rwby speculation #rwby analysis

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charadreammer · 1 year

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So I’ve just finished the 2005 serie of Ben 10 and I’m actually surprise that I remembered at least the plot of almost every episode. I knew I was really into it but being diffused exclusively on TV I thought I would have forgotten an episode or have not seen it at the time, but no, almost all 52 episodes were still in there ! The only episode I fully rediscorvered, the only one, was “Ken 10″ and I honestly think it’s because I found it boring.

I don’t know if this episode is appreciated by the fandom but I genuinely didn’t like it. First of all, I’ve never been a big fan of Ben 10 000. I think he’s cool but really not much more than that. So, having another episode on his universe, not even on him but on his son (that we never saw before) was not interesting to me. Futhermore, Kenny seems to me like a copy of young Ben but because it’s the first time we’re seing him I don’t have the bias I possess towards Ben, thus, I just don’t find him enjoyable or interesting.

Another thing I have against this episode is the fact that Kevin is the villain. I only started to like Kevin in Alien Force, in the classic serie I saw him like an okay character. He was there with cool abilities but I didn’t grow attached or anything. In consequences, watching this episode in a timeline where I don’t have the version of Kevin with his growth, but the grown up version of the vengeaful kid I dislike feels a little underwelming. Of course that’s not something that was an issue at the time of diffusion but I just wanted to talk about it.

I know that in Omnitrix we have a reappereance of Kenny and from what I saw, it’s bad. But having not watch this part of the show, I’m honestly curious to see what they did with the character and if they improve him. At the moment I just know that he tries to force BenxKai and I hope he does something in the episode taking place in the Omniverse Ben 10000 universe (I think there’s one) because I really want to have at least a positive thing to think about him.

This kinda turned into a rant but overall I’m just really excited to continue my rewatch !

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ambroise-framboise · 2 years

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Hermitcraft deserves more crossovers. So have this post about Hermitcraft and Katekyo Hitman Reborn bc current and past fandoms colliding makes the brain go brrrr.

This will not make a lot of sense if you’re not at least slightly familiar with the KHR world btw.

This is a “Hermits get dropped in a random world, proceed to baffle everyone” kind of crossover. My first reflex was to have a Hermit be Skull. Look, a Hermit can and will qualify for the title of “Strongest Flames”, so the Arcobaleno part works. The question then was ; WHICH ONE would play Skull. The whole “goofy and undying” part of the Skull persona made me think of Scar, bc man is he talented at this kind of stuff. BUT ! I’m sorry but Scar, Concorps Convex Scar is a Mist. So not Scar.

Who then ? I tried to figure out which Hermit had which flame (that’s hard, I don’t watch every single hermit and also the personality has to somewhat fit). Some are easy-ish, like Mumbo being a storm bc red like redstone and destruction (Mumbo Kills a Lot Jumbo my beloved), and Tango too maybe. Bdubs is a Sun, it makes sense in my head. Cub is Mist, bc Convex again. Joe is... Mist and Rain probably ? Doc might be a lighning and a storn, idk. Xisuma is a Sky, of course. Who would be Skull ? In the end, I was like ; okay, mischevious enough to create an annoying persona, love stunts, associated with the color purple... Grian. Is it the best fit ? No. Do I care ? Also no. So what happens ? Hermits get yeeted into a new world, and deal with it like they can, being both very chaotic and efficient. They carve themselves a little place in some almost empty part of the world, far from civilisation. Xisuma, our beloved admin, notices that the world is in Hardcore (aka no respawns) and decides that it won’t do. Hacker man powers, puts everyone back in survival. They are effectively immortal. Nice.

Some travel sometimes, and they still love roleplaying, which is how Grian (under the name Skull) ends up being a stunt artist, and gets contacted by Iron Hat Guy. Said dude has no idea who Skull is btw. He thinks he’s a civilian. Which, technically isn’t wrong. Grian does the Skull act, and the moment he can slips away to tell allll about Flames and Mafia and the Underworld to the rest of the Hermits. They are VERY interested, and a thing leads to another and oop they’re all Flame active and bonded and they made a new mafia family (maybe named the Hermits, maybe not).

It’s important to note that they don’t... really care about the murdery aspects of the mafia world ?? They’re very used to death games, and kinda assume that people just respawn in another world when they die. Many Shenanananangians laters (including Grian getting cursed to be baby, which makes every hermit laugh a lot, and Scar being like, terrifying to most of the mafia world), and we get to the sacrifice/big fight where all the Arcobalenos are supposed to get a team and fight each other. Now, instead of asking the flames of the earth guy (whose name i’ve forgotten rn, oop) Grian of course asks his friends.

The others Arcobaleno have no idea these guys existed (well, they had heard of the Hermits but had NO IDEA they were Skull’s Family) and are thus very surprise. Fighting happen, the hermits are overpowered bc HERMITS, and Kawahira arrives. Tries to punish everyone for rebelling and refusing to be a sacrifice/continue the endless cycle.

It looks bad, until ! TFC, beloved grandpa, man actually older than time (and older than Kawahira) and maybe Herobrine himself but who was retired, intervenes. Kawahira stands no chance and gets bonked into submission by a pickaxe. The problem gets solved, and then it’s a race to stop the resident scientist Hermits and Verde to bond over blowing up entire cities and making inventions of mass destruction.

I’d say THE END but it’s really not.

What do you think ? What Flames would YOU give to the Hermits, what events and interactions would you like to see ?? Send an ask or a comment ! I’ll answer as fast as I can

#hermitcraft #katekyo hitman reborn #katekyou hitman reborn #khr #crossover #khr x hermitcraft #grian #goodtimeswithscar #grian is skull #hermits are chaotic #and it'd fit the khr world well i think #also hermitcraft needs more crossovers #come on

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epicspheal · 2 years

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Not going to lie as a Leon fan, I’ve been disappointed with how Pokemon Journeys has been writing his character when it comes to battling. Now the non-battling episodes like the cake decorating contest or him and Ash playing with Pokemon was great! It really shows off who he is outside of being Leon the Unbeatable Champion in a way that games or the manga have yet to show. But when it comes to battling I think the writers have forgotten that while Leon is unbeatable, he was never meant to feel like he was untouchable (despite what many game!Leon haters like to say).

See where the games didn’t necessarily allow for Leon to show off his persona much off the pitch, it did a really a good job in setting up the narrative so that Leon was unbeatable, but not untouchable which is good because considering that Victor/Gloria were initially rookies trainers before ultimately defeating Leon, him being too untouchable would’ve made their win feel cheap. The first (and honestly in my opinion) the biggest way they’ve messed up is with Raihan and Leon’s barely existent rivalry. In the games, Raihan has been stated to be able to knock out more of Leon’s Pokemon than anyone else, yet in the anime, they made their battle one-on-one which gave no opportunity to really showcase how powerful Raihan is. Even Twilight Wings in a brief montage was able to showcase a close matchup between Leon and Raihan with them being down to one Pokemon each at the end. Like yeah he wasn’t swept like Alain or Diantha but still you really can’t have a close battle that showcases strength of a trainer with just one Pokemon per side unless this is two rookie trainers just starting out on their journeys. It also doesn’t help that by not giving that close battle it just puts Leon on a ridiculously high pedestal.

Then there’s the fact that this is a world coronation series (similar to the PWT in games) instead of this just being a Galar-centric anime. See in the games, Leon is only considered Galar’s greatest champion. It’s never stated that he’s the absolute best out of every trainer (this is something honestly only salty fans of other champions have run with). This is not to downplay his strength as I do firmly believe Leon is one of the strongest champions in the Pokeverse. But by making his feats contained mostly to the Galar region it again grounds his strength in way that doesn’t make him too untouchable. It leaves wiggle room that maybe if he went up against champions from the other region that maybe he could lose to them. But by making him the number one trainer in the world it puts him on an extremely high pedestal that has to have good writing around it so his wins don’t come off too boring and that his eventual loss doesn’t come off to cheap.

Yet the way the anime writers are going, they are definitely on track to may Ash’s likely defeat of Leon feel very cheap (and to be fair the way they’ve written Ash certainly isn’t helping but that’s for another post). And I honestly believe this wouldn’t have been an issue had this been a Galar-centric anime.

There’s also the lack of Mustard in the anime. Sure Mustard isn’t known as the greatest Galarian champion, but he is still canonically the longest reigning champion in Galar’s history. That’s something Leon in the gameverse will never be able to outdo and that’s fine. It’s doesn’t undermine his overwhelming strength but it does show that he’s not perfect in every way and thus lays the foundation for a new champion to take over. I’m just honestly a little annoyed at how one of my favorite characters in recent generation got screwed over in both the manga and the anime, but mainly the anime because it has such a wider audience and many people form their opinions on characters based on their portrayal in the show. I usually prefer the anime’s choices with game characters, but I’m not really liking how they are doing Leon battlewise. They don’t have to show him sweeping every character to prove he’s strong and honestly just makes it that much harder to make Ash have a convincing win especially if he’s using his Journey’s team solely. But more importantly it just invites way more hate for a character that’s been divisive ever since Pokemon SwSh dropped and as a Leon fan, it’s really sad to see one of my favorite characters get even more hate.

#champion leon #ash ketchum #pokemon journeys #gym leader raihan #champion mustard

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muses14 · 1 year

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Little Mushroom (Review)

Type: Chinese Novel (BL) Genre: Sci-fi Author: Yi Shi Si Zhou Rating: ★★★★★ Summary: “Until the day humanity falls.” In the year 2020, Earth’s magnetic poles disappeared and humankind was nearly wiped out by cosmic radiation. Within the span of a hundred years, living creatures began to mutate and devour each other while the remaining humans, numbering in the tens of thousands, struggled bitterly in their man-made bases.

In the Abyss, home to the mutated xenogenics, there lived a sentient little mushroom. Because it had been nourished by the blood and flesh of the deceased human An Ze, not only did it take on a similar-looking human form, but a similar name as well: An Zhe.

An Zhe is determined to go to the human base to search for his spore, which had been harvested by humans. Once there, however, he faces the omnipresent risk of discovery and certain death as he tries to keep his non-human nature hidden from the Judges, whose responsibility is to inspect for and eliminate xenogenics like himself. And of all the Judges, Colonel Lu Feng is the most perceptive and merciless—as soon as he determines that someone is a xenogenic, he will execute that person on the spot.

But An Zhe’s mutation goes undetected by Lu Feng’s eyes, and so a tale of humans and xenogenics unfolds…

Silver Award winner at the 12th Chinese Nebula Awards for Chinese Science Fiction.

Characters:

An Zhe He is a (adorable) little mushroom who gains human form when a human died near where he was growing, and he absorbs his flesh and blood and gains some of his genes and memories. That said person was named An Ze, and thus, he adopted the name An Zhe. He became a special kind of xenogenic. Having lost his spore when humans came and took it, he made it his mission to sneak into a human base and take back what was his. Lu Feng The aloof and silent Arbiter who vowed to serve mankind in all ways. Having to bear the burden of killing xenogenics (people who are infected by creatures and lose their humanity) from entering the base he was residing in, he was the target of ire from people who felt he was killing without remorse. But little do they know this is one of the hardest things someone can shoulder, because I sure as heck thought so! Poor Lu Feng. Though one thing that was a little iffy was the fact he had so much POWER within the base. Like, his words were law, and he was able to kill whenever and whoever without question. This required some suspension of disbelief on my part, but there’s been worst things I’ve read. lol

Relationship: It’s cute, is one way I’d word it? It is subtle, but the way they interact is on a realistic level and An Zhe knows he can’t be with Lu Feng in the same way two humans can. In fact, at first he was afraid if Lu Feng even liked him a little bit. Not hard to think that since Lu Feng is stoic and of few words the majority of the time. He does tease An Zhe but our little mushroom didn’t quite understand, haha.

Minimal romance is fine to me so long as I can still feel like the characters care deeply for one another. The author nailed it in my eyes. The slow burn was very nice~

The epilogues go a little more in depth of their relationship, but I am excluding those and am only focusing on the main stuff, per usual. Supporting Characters: Does An Ze count? He never left my mind really the entire novel despite being present only in the beginning. It was because of him that An Zhe came to exist the way he did. THANK YOU, AN ZE! And I was moved that An Zhe never forgot about him. Bless his little heart. The scene where An Zhe wanted to go back to where it all began (during a certain segment of the story) moved me too, and I teared up a bit. Pauli was cool too. Most were killed off or forgotten about by the author. Oof. The remaining ones didn’t leave any kind of lasting feelings from me. Overall: Excellent read! I was never bored at any moment (and this is unusual for me) and binged it easily whenever I had the time to. I enjoyed how none of the main characters drastically changed or anything by the end. Everything was subtle and it worked for this novel. *chef’s kiss*

#novel review #xiao mogu #little mushroom #yi shi si zhou

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frodo-with-glasses · 2 years

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Bergil and Sam, 1 and 12 please! (Maybe Bergil and Frodo as well?) :D ~meg

Ooh! Now this is an interesting one. Let’s talk about Sam and Bergil first!

1. “When I think they became friends”

Okay, so I haven’t finished this read-through of the book yet (and thus have forgotten all but the most important details), but I’ve been told that Sam and Bergil never actually speak to one another in the books. That means my imagination has free reign to come up with THEORIES.

The first chance that Sam and Bergil would have to meet each other would be during the celebrations in Gondor after the Ring was destroyed. If it didn’t happen then, then it could only have happened many years later when the Gamgees came to visit Gondor.

Either way, I imagine Sam and Bergil would hit it off very quickly, simply by virtue of being mutual friends of Pippin’s. Bergil would think Sam is hilarious and would want to hear all the stories of his adventure. If they met just after the destruction of the Ring, Sam would be initially put off by how tall this literal child is compared to him, but he’d quickly shake it off, ‘cause I can’t imagine that Sam “Will Have Thirteen Children” Gamgee wouldn’t be good with kids. (If he met him later, Bergil is just another tall Man, and Sam knows to expect that at this point.)

12. “A word to describe them”

Not a word as much as a phrase, but I would say “servant’s heart”. Once you get past their vastly different backgrounds and personalities, you’ll find that deep underneath, Sam and Bergil have a very similar drive to help and to be of use to those they love. It’s their loyalty, fearlessness, and passion to their chosen causes and people that connects them, even when everything on the surface suggests that they couldn’t be more different. They’re not the major players; but boy, are they ever the crucial support.

BONUS: Frodo and Bergil

The only chance they’d have to meet would be during Frodo’s recovery in Ithilien after the end of the Quest. Bergil would hear the minstrel spin tales of Frodo the Nine-Fingered, and he’d look at him in awe and wonder. Is it all really true? It feels like it’s one of the old story-books, full of legends and tales and the heroes of old, but here it is unfolding right before his eyes! And there’s his friend, the perian, Pippin, laughing and jesting with Frodo like they’ve known each other all their lives. How close, Bergil wonders, was he to this hero of their world, and he never even realized it?

When Pippin introduces them after the feast, Frodo musters a smile and some very courteous words, but it seems he has to draw them from somewhere deep inside himself, and the effort seems to wear him out. Bergil doesn’t notice at first. He’s far too excited, and he has so many questions that demand answers.

It’s only when he’s much older that he realizes it. The look in Frodo Nine-Finger’s eyes—he’s seen it before.

It’s the same one he saw in his own father’s eyes, the day he told him the truth about what happened at the Door.

(Frodo, for his part, saw the joy of victory in the smile of a young child. For a moment, it was like the sun breaking through a thick haze of cloud, but it had disappeared as quickly as it had come. This child was able to rejoice in their freedom; Frodo feels like he should’ve been rejoicing too.

So why can’t he?)

A word to describe Frodo and Bergil: “Distant”.

FRIENDSHIP ASK GAME!

#ask game #samwise gamgee #bergil #frodo baggins #lord of the rings #lotr #my writing #oops suddenly angst

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wytfut · 1 year

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wth is with the title?

I live in my own little world. Pretty sure most folks that know me personally, know this. And they either just handle it, or ignore... No matter. And the “Captain Obvious” side of it, is me running around with blinders on, missing reality.

I came up with this title, as I wanted something that tells a bit about me, AND is obscurely different enough to draw curiosity. Why that? I don’t know, ... guess I've never been one to appear common, or like everyone else. Pretty sure most folks like to be the individual they are,... but maybe a touch afraid of attracting attention. Because of my attitude towards being an individual, I do attract attention. I don’t believe its intentional (could be), but no matter... I’ll let someone else decide

Been that way most of my life.... I like being me. Never insulted so much as when Lincoln Hoot and Hollar got bought out by Alltel. I went from Bruce Whitefoot to , umm.... really can’t remember that number anymore. LTT, I could call any department, and they’d at least recognize the fact to know me, whether they did or not.

I am a grandpa. I’ve got 5 grand kids.... love them all. Don’t get to see them enough.

Grumpy..... yup, older I get the grumpier I’m getting... thats a fact.

Pants.... since 1999, I have put on the pounds. I went from my fighting weight of 197 (I was at that weight for over 20 years) to my max of 257. When I got up to that weight, my pants were starting to become uncomfortable. Even with upping in sizes a couple of times. This in turn would add to the “grumpy” side of the title.

Lil known side note: I’ve been on a diet since October, and here in February, I’m down almost 30 pounds. Really got tired of pants that hurt. Been a battle, losing weight and my back. Want to get down 50 total.... I’m pretty sure I can do it.

X world... as in Excelsior Henderson World, or Super X community, etc.

I’ve been a member of many organizations thru the years. None have met or surpassed what I’ve experienced in this community. Have developed some strong everlasting friendships, all over this country.... and few in other countries.

This group of folks..... I like to think it wouldn’t mattter, if the common denominator was something other that “Super X”, and still be attractive .... BUT as we all know Brucie, its because its different that attracts me.

Thus “Grandpa Grumpy Pants X world” ... and you can search that on youtube.

Just posted another video yesterday on youtube. Here I’ve got 5 already and thought I’ve be lucky to get 4 a year. LOL

That came about, as my original video I chopped into 4 episodes. And then I remembered a bunch of stuff, I had forgotten, and made the 5th epsiode of the original 4.... I’ve probably still forgotten more stuff. I’ll get it all on there sooner or later.

I’m nutz...

Cleaning my video files yesterday on my pc, I recognized that I’ve probably got 2 more videos ready to publish. And one already edited waiting.

Pull in the reins Brucester...

This site, and the youtube site, both will have episodes other than Super X context. The title isn’t “strictly”...

I know my audience will never be huge. I’ll never make a penny on any of this. But so far I’ve been enjoying. And as long as my Grand kids have access to both, I’m happy.

Talking into a camera/mic isn’t near as intimidating as the first time, but I must admit, I do get tongue tied easily. Editing... I’ve figured out a process that makes it easy for me. Not a smooth motion yet, but getting there.

Uploading to Youtube is a real clock eater. I’ve had to get up close and personal with my computer. Get to know the ins and outs everyone else knows except for me. Tech language, just kicks my ass, 99% of the time I have no idea what the words are telling me. And then the grumpy shows up...

Thanx Jordan Anderson for your help.

Those Youtube influencers.... I highly respect the work they do to do what they do. Amazing quality, and talents.

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looniecartooni · 2 years

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Okay- I’ve joked about Stan from Okage Shadow King and Hunter from the Owl House looking alike with the spikey blonde hair and the hook nose but I just realized another disturbing similarity.

Spoilers for both the game Okage Shadow King and the show The Owl House below:

The main OP antagonist making fake clones of their child like relative that is at least over 300 years old and killing them when they don’t comply with the fake reality they created. Coincidence?! I think not!!!!

Also- that is really disturbing when put into perspective. It also eventually becomes a sick joke after a while with the story of the turtle and the pebble in OSK and Hunter literally gaining his name due to the fact that Belos was a witch hunter. Both Belos and Beiloune rather than face the reality of their actions kept creating versions of their family they expected to behave like puppets that were happy with what they thought was right. As soon as the fake Marlene started hating the world that was created for her again and Hunter questioned what Belos did to the other golden guards, instead of trying to comfort or even explain themselves they literally said, “what a shame” and revealed that they weren’t even the real original people. They saw themselves as righteous enforcers of order, censoring out what they saw as unfit for their world while posing as if they were secondary to who they claimed to be the true ruler of the kingdom.

Both Marlene and Hunter also carry themselves as higher ranked individuals with their forced lies until confronted with something that makes them feel more compassion. While Beiloune seems to take a more kinder approach than Belos with making Marlene a princess and still seemingly grieving over the fact he can’t find her, he still doesn’t understand that its his world that she fears. The one he keeps trying to control. Thus, she isolates herself either to be or is eventually forgotten about. Belos on the other hand has isolated himself from the world he’s forced himself to live in and has forced his own form of order on because he sees it as a threat to his world. He has refused to see outside the perspective that he could be wrong while Hunter is forced to see it, causing him to run away in fear of his safety and the safety of those he’s grown to care about. Marlene also kind of does that too, but she doesn’t really do much to help her friends, she more of pleads for help while Hunter learns to accept help from others. Both did go on a life changing journey by being exposed to other people besides their emotionally and kind of violently abusive guardian figure.

Add Marlene to that Therapy Coven Hunter is supposedly in- these children need all the comfort they can get!

#no pictures #pretty disturbing content...#I wonder if Okage had any influence on the owl house #the owl house #okage shadow king #toh spoilers #toh hunter #osk marlene #turned into an essay when I didn't want it to #dang it- not again!!

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wandering-wolf23 · 7 months

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hey, re: dogs and good breeders — do you have any advice/recommendations on:

1) figuring out what breed(s) I want/should get

2) similarly, figuring out what breeds I should not get

3) finding a good breeder for the breed(s) I want

4) potentially (not sure if this is something I want to pursue), the above with the addition of the intention of the dog being trained for service work

none of this would be happening for several years, as I’m currently a student without the space, financial means, or time for a dog, but it’s something I want for the future. my family has always adopted from shelters and rescue programs (and been very lucky with our adoptions’ temperaments, less so with health), but from the research I’ve done thus far, I think I’d want to go to a breeder for my own dog (especially if I want the dog trained for service). I just don’t know where to start…

I'll try to help as best I can. Please keep in mind that I'm from Alabama and what I did might not apply to you.

1). Read everything you can find about dog breeds. The AKC dog breed profiles are generally a good place to start. I ended up on a Presa because I needed a calm dog who was going to be able to help haul my ass up the stairs, because the building I was working in at the time didn't have an elevator. At the time, I was around 130 pounds, which is a lot to ask of a medium sized dog breed. I also happened to know someone who bred Presas and I've dog sat for her multiple times. Alabama also gets really fucking hot, so mountain dog breeds were out. I just didn't think it was fair to ask a cold weather dog to work in a place where it's 85 F+ for at least half the year.

Educate yourself about lines, breeds, and everything in between. Dog Tumblr also has a wealth of information and people who have forgotten more than I know!

2). Be honest with yourself about your needs and activity level. Get a dog for what you have now, not what you want to have. Don't get a dog in the hopes it'll be your personal trainer, for example. Also, call and text breeders to ask about their dogs and what they are like. Personally, I hate brushing and grooming long haired dogs, so all of my dogs have been short haired (yes, short haired Border Collies are a thing!).

3). I basically asked a ton of questions to the breeders and asked to see dogs, health records, and a tour of the place. I breed goats, so I'm very familiar with those things. Don't be afraid to ask a lot of questions! I started with the AKC and UKC breeder "marketplaces" before I ultimately went with the person local to me. I knew her, I knew her dogs, and I had interacted enough with the puppies and adult dogs to know what I was getting.

4). The last one depends on the breeder. Doing service work, depending on the type, asks a lot of the dog. A good breeder will have a very good idea of which dog will be better for service work than others. This is especially true if you're going to be using an "off" breed. My service dog ended up being "off" from the standard, so she was going to be companion only anyways. My breeder focused on show and companion dogs, so they did not have the hotter temper working line Presas did. I'm also aware that my dog was probably a unicorn in regards to what she was willing to do and tolerate from other people.

I hope I've helped some! There are a lot of other Tumblr users to know much more than I do. Doberbutts is another person I'd go to and ask - he either knows the answer or he knows where to look.

#dispatches #original content? on this blog?#kiri rambles #kiri talks dogs #Maggie was probably a unicorn #she was amazing #i loved her #maggie tolerated a lot from some very stupid people #she didn't like other dogs (fair) but she didn't try to kill them like Grace did

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runemyth0 · 9 months

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Fire Red Z, Part 8: Volcano & Earth

Alright, you know the drill. Last time! On! Fire Red! Z! We trained real hard, did some soul searching, then won the Soul Badge from Koga. After that, we headed south and west, towards Cinnabar Island and the seventh gym badge.

And it actually went really well!

After surfing through the choppy waters of Route 19, we caught Seagrass the Tentacool on Route 20. After that, it was a quick jaunt through the Seafoam Islands (with about a half dozen cans of repel), then across the rest of Route 20. I did spot a big blue bird in the depths of the caves, but that might have been an ice sculpture... I’ll have to go back and check.

Cinnabar Island! The island of fire, some call it. Also known as the island of NOT HAVING THEIR DANG GYM OPEN.

While we waited for them to open back up, we stopped in at the research lab and got ourselves Calamites the Kabuto! After checking and finding the gym still not open, we went fishing, catching Sargassum the Shellder.

After checking one more time and finding the gym locked up tight, I decided to go invade the only other freestanding structure on the island for a key. If Blaine wasn’t willing to face me, then I’d just break in and steal myself a badge.

Unfortunately, looks like a bunch of other folks had the same idea and were looting the pokemon mansion for all its goods. Though, some of them seemed in a hurry to carry off a bunch of research papers.

I mean, I read the journals scattered throughout the house, but it wasn’t like they had any useful information. They just talked about some rare pokemon called Mew and another named Mewtwo. They also mentioned some place called “South America” where Mew was supposedly discovered; I don’t think I’ve ever seen that region on a map, so who knows what they were talking about.

Whatever. I found the key, then headed back to the gym. Waterlily Surfed through most of the gym trainers, netting a good number of levels in the process. Naturally, we made a quick stop at the pokemon center before we faced Blaine.

Blaine was ridiculously easy. While Waterlily did take a Fire Blast to the face (as did Ginger), Surf and Earthquake made quick work of his team. Volcano Badge acquired!

After I left, Bill showed up and dragged me off to the Sevii Islands to check out his friend’s computer set up. I got distracted while they were working on it and ended up fighting a biker gang and saving a little girl from a Hypno. I caught Palm the Exeggcute and Horsetail the Psyduck on Three and Two Island, respectively. I also heard about some big, scary pokemon living up on the volcano, so definitely going to check that out soon.

Once we got back to Cinnabar, Bill headed home and so did I, up through Route 21. I tried to catch a Tangela, but as it turns out, Wheat is just too strong, even an ineffective Razor Leaf tore through the poor pokemon.

Regardless, we stayed the night at home (Mom was glad to see us, for sure), then headed out to Vermillion City in the morning, after hearing a news report about their gym leader returning. I may have forgotten my pokeballs and had to rush back to grab them...

Regardless, we headed in to the gym, facing all the ground type trainers and making our way to the mysterious leader of the gym–oh who am I kidding, it was Giovanni. Who else loves ground types this much? I might have had a few concerns about facing him, not least of which being my entire team being fairly underleveled, just barely hitting his lowest levels.

But we were riding high off our last gym! Thus the battle began, even as memories of Cerulean flashed through my head.

Wheat took down his Ryhorns in one hit each, in part thanks to the secret technique learned on Two Island. Foxglove failed to OHKO Nidoqueen and tanked an Earthquake like a champ. She managed to drop Nidoqueen’s Sp. Def, though, and the next Psychic was a one shot. Rather than risk Foxglove against Nidoking, Waterlily subbed in and one shot him with Surf.

Earth Badge acquired! And apparently Team Rocket defeated forever? Cool, I guess.

Anyways, all I have left to do is make my way through Route 23 and Victory Road. But first, I think I should head back out and do some training. Not to mention I need to start thinking about the team that will face the Elite Four. And investigating those strange pokemon around the region...

Looks like I’ve got a lot to do!

#lyle plays #fire red nuzlocke #pokemon #pokemon fire red #pokemon nuzlocke

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oh-yes-i-did-not · 11 months

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For some reason I’ve been going down a memory lane and even remembering stuff I’d forgotten. While I’m the infuriating agnostic-atheist fence sitter that everyone hates these days, both religious and non-religious people, I was brought up Lutheran. And while I don’t remember one moment of believing in something I can’t see, hear, feel, or touch, it was pretty much the only free option to do anything after school, and thus the one that my mom couldn’t control. Like, she really, REALLY loved the spiel of “if you don’t behave and do things up to my standards then we won’t be paying for this” and somehow nothing was ever good enough for her so I had no paid hobbies, end of.

So anyways, I spent a shit ton of time at church and in church activities as a kid. I kinda felt bad about it at times, but also, not really. My personal beliefs didn’t matter to them anyways, just that I showed up and did shit. And if ended up being the receiving older kid on some kid’s personal musings? Well, agnosticism is not exactly... hhhh, I wanna say judged, but I also grew in the bible belt of my country and where most of the small sects and cults came from, so I wouldn’t say it was ever the safe option. But there is no official word against it afaik. And the whole “cool, hip, young pastors” was a thing back then so I don’t think they minded anyways. So if I asked the kids to think about some things on their own, where’s the harm?

The only time I really regret, and it wasn’t even my fault, was when I was leading a camp group at... well, it’s kinda hard to explain Finnish Lutheran practices to foreigners, but we do this thing called confirmation as the age of 14-15. It’s preceded by a religious indoctrination camp where we spend a week in some remote place with only priests and pastors and a handful of other kids, older teens, who act as camp group leaders. And the whole point is to learn as much about bible and then test on it like you were in a school.

So anyways, one day we got assignments to write group works about angels. And my group (the group I was leading as an older, already confirmed teen, just to clarify, I was not a member going through confirmation) for one reason or another, personal or no, they decided to write about the trauma of a child dying and then the family having the comfort of knowing that child is now an angel, watching over them all. It was a group of 5 teenagers and they all decided to write about that. It was pretty damned important to them, okay?

The priest residing over just nodded and we all thought it was good, we did good.

But that weekend? On Sunday sermon? That same priest preached about the heresy of believing mere humans could become angels, the horrible thought that gods created angels could be tainted by humanity. I was mortified. And I was also just a teen myself so I don’t think I handled it well. I actually don’t even remember what I said to my group or what I did, but I don’t think it was anything helpful. I was just so, absolutely, horrified by what the priest said.

Like, I have some religious trauma, that included, but little of it comes from the small circles of church I mostly interacted with as a kid and a teen, okay? It was a pretty nice place but also, the adults there sheltered me from a LOT. Just that when I got older, the less handful of people could protect me. Even the fact that I could walk into the church office at 18, resigning from church, and the people there being all “okay, that’s fine, just sign here” with smiles, is not that common, I later learned. The fact that eroakirkosta.fi exists is for a reason. It’s not always that easy. I could do it in person, my partner later on absolutely could not.

This is all just to empathize that while you can have a good time in a church environment and the people around you are nice and accepting, that is not the case for everyone. And while I don’t have statistics about anything, I would go as far as wager that it’s not so in majority of parishes. It’s just a rough estimation between me and all the people I know who had the exact opposite experiences. ‘Cause I’m pretty alone in this category of “had some good times, some disturbing times, took advantage, then left lmao” category.

And yes, I do believe people telling me they did not have the same experiences as me. Why would I not?

#church #christianity #evangelical lutherans #lutheran church

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th3-art-of-dying · 1 year

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Experience

I have managed to generate a myriad of questions after arriving at a theoretical conclusion on a topic that can only be speculated about. Great.

The subject in question is a touchy one for many people. My views on said subject are likely much different than any you many have heard. My purpose is not to offend or sow doubt, I wish only to share what I learn and theorize based on what I’ve learned and what makes sense to me. At the end of the day, when it comes to matters of the spirit, death or purpose of life, none of us really knows for sure. Are we supposed to have all the answers though?

My first question, which led to this fiasco, was what is the point of life? Why are we here? You know, the usual. I am of the mindset that we can usually figure out the answers to these questions regarding the things we cannot see by looking at the things we can see. If you’re a believer of the Bible, Jesus said something similar; ‘The things not seen are evident in the things seen.’

For example; all things exist under the rule of the laws of nature. (The true god) One such law states that all things within our realm, end. So all things exist within a cycle. So, using this same blueprint I apply it to death. (The unseen) This must mean that even death has a beginning, a duration and an end. I don’t want to get too deep into this, I’m simply illustrating an example.

I should say, I do not believe that we, as human beings, retain our individuality after death. It is my speculation that we become one with the source from which we came and, if anything, we simply become redistributed randomly as new life. Completely different beings. If any of this seems too far fetched for you or offensive, you should probably not follow the rabbit any farther.

Arriving at the beginning of the purpose of this article, I ask myself, what is existence? Or, what does it mean to exist? What is obvious to me is that the word exist is directly related to the word experience. This is because life is nothing if not a collection of experiences. I then wonder, can an entity say that they have truly lived if they have not fully experienced all there is to experience?

To put it another way, we as mortal beings can only experience a small amount of everything there is to experience. This is because of our profound limitations in the grand scheme of things. If you require an example, we can never know what it feels like to stand on Jupiter. Even the things we do experience are largely forgotten with enough time. Our biggest limitation is our mortality. We all die and are thus subject to time.

For us, a fairly long life allows for a miniscule amount of experiences. All of which are lost upon our death. Now, consider what existence could mean for an infinite being. Such as God. My next question was, can an infinite being say that they exist or have lived if they have not had every experience in every scenario in every place at every time?

Think about what God is… all power, in all places at all times. God is everything, all matter, energy, life itself. How can this all knowing being truly know all without having experienced it all?

This brings me to the question riddled conclusion to this situation, what if all of life is a wheel in the sky that keeps on rolling? For the purpose of God attempting to live infinite lives in infinite places through all of time infinitely so that instead of being just a concentration of energy in empty nothingness, this entity has found a way to exist the only way he could? By portioning himself off, putting tiny bits of himself into us (and other life forms surely) purely to make an opportunity to experience… everything?

You may be thinking, this dude is friggin' loco, but if you’ve made it this far, you are officially entertained. :) Plenty more of my strange theories to check out.

Thank you for reading and much love to you all!

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